Chapter 10

Roi stood in front of his troops, trying to find the words that he was supposed to say. He stared at each of his troop members. They were all waiting for him to speak, some were more impatient looking, and some were waiting quietly with no expression on their faces. He looked at his clothes and straightened his vest.

"We have been reassigned." he announced. There was a murmur that erupted from the crowd. "As you well know, Lightning was banished about a week ago. I was at a meeting with the admiral, who had information on the prophecy." He watched as all of the soldiers faces changed to ones of intrigue. "We believe that Lightning is that woman. We made the mistake of not taking away her weapons, and General Ava is angered. She told us to keep an eye on her. That is what we are here for today. This troop has been assigned to keep an eye on her down in Pulse." A flurry of questions and statements flooded across the troop, many soldiers afraid, many of them ashamed. "I am going to teach you how to keep away from her, how to deal with her if she ever finds out you're following her, and how to take care of yourselves."

There was a quick silence now. One that came all too quick. A few men shuffled in their spots. One looked around uneasily, and then gazed over at Roi. "Sir, how do we do this, exactly?"

Roi smiled encouragingly. "That's the spirit, soldier." He stared his troops down. "This is the kind of behavior I expect from each and every one of you." he said. "You need to be positive, you need to maintain the information I am going to give you. I know how she fights, and I know how to defend against her. You are to use this against her only if she finds you and attacks you first." There were nods in the crowd. "We start now."

Somewhere in the desert…

The sand ship rumbled noisily across the sand, closing in on the ruins. They were more like broken pillars than ruins, but if the crystal was in there, Lightning wasn't going to complain. At least there was a stone floor, from what she could see. She couldn't tell if there was a roof on some parts or not, but she could've sworn that she saw something shiny on the roof. She removed her gaze from the bright thing of mystery and looked at Sera, who was incredibly concentrated on her navigation.

She tapped the girl on the shoulder and smiled in triumph as she jumped an inch off of her seat. Sera looked at her, giving her a look of hate. "You are so RUDE!!" she exclaimed. Lightning laughed lightly.

"I didn't do that to scare you," she started. "Although that was incredibly funny. I just wanted to ask you a question."

The girls face changed to one of surprise. "Oh, okay then. Ask away."

Lightning eyed the shiny spot again. "Where would the crystal be?" she asked. There were so many hidden places in ruins, so she didn't figure that it was on the roof. Then again, she didn't know much of anything around here. This place, and any other place at that, was a mystery to her.

Sera was silent for a moment, her look of all-knowing disappearing. Her eyes closed, but she remembered that she was steering and opened them again. "I'm not sure. It could be anywhere." she answered. "I guess there's always the farthest tomb down, the middle tomb, or tombs, and then there's the first floor. There's no telling. No one has seen the crystal." She hissed at herself. Lightning stared her down.

"No one has seen it? So, how do you know that it's real?" Her eyes were ice again.

Sera sighed. "No one is SURE if it's real. But," she said, before Lightning could yell. "…there have been many clues to its existence. For instance, the Cocoon military has a folder containing information on it." she said.

"Well, then we're DEFINITELY not wasting our time." Lightning replied sarcastically. "If Cocoon has it, then it must be real."

"Oh, come on Lightning. Don't be that way. Besides, it's the only way I can think of to get your memory back." Sera reminded her. Lightning made a growling noise, but kept quiet after that. They stayed silent for the rest of the ten minutes it took to get to the ruins, and then they stood up, nearly hitting their heads on the ceiling. It took them less than a minute to get outside. The heat burst through the opening in the door as they left the musky smell of the rusty ship.

The bright light of the intense sun was starting to lower, creating the many colors of fire that Lightning had laid eyes on the first day she had been on Pulse. Or at least the first day she remembered. The colors bounced off of the tan clay that made up the ruins.

"So," Sera startled her with the sudden high pitched squeal. "Let's get started." Lightning took a step farther into the ruin territory. The sand was softer and thicker here, which she didn't think was possible, considering how much of a desert was already built up in her boots from the previous sand journey.

"Do you have ANY idea of where to start?" Lightning asked, feeling quite red-faced at the fact that Sera hadn't done any more research before pulling them out there.

The girl scratched her head as they walked. She made a low grumbling noise, then sighed. "Not really. I guess start with the basement. That's where it would normally be, I guess," she declared, a proud look spreading halfway across her face.

Lightning rolled her eyes at the enthusiastic look on her face and walked ahead of her, stepping onto the clay floors. Her footsteps echoed in the empty, dead air. Lightning got the creepy impression that all life in this place was sucked out. She already felt hollow. Like her soul had been drained into the heart of the ruins. Something wasn't right about the place.

Apparently she wasn't the only one who thought so, since Sera was rubbing her arms in an attempt to make the goose bumps disappear. "Do you get the feeling we're being watched?" she asked, her eyes darting from one wall to the other.

She shrugged. "Sort of, but I'm not too worried about it. Whatever it is will either run away at the sight of us, or we'll be forced to take action," she said. Sera paused.

"Take…action?" she asked. She watched Lightning enter the set of double doors at the end of the open hallway. "Hey, wait up!"

Inside of the doors, Lightning stopped. It was a chapel, or something along the lines of it. Well, maybe more of a gladiators arena. The large, open room had a wall of short staircases leading to a slightly raised platform on their left side, like it was a place that monks would live in. Columns created a large walkway in the middle, arches hovering above the stairs. Farther off, as Lightning walked closer, she could see fire spewing out of cracks in the floor. She rose an eyebrow.

"This is a desert, right?" she asked Sera. The girl nodded, her eyes glued to the cracks in the floor as well.

"Yeah," she answered, taking another step closer. "I wonder what that could be."

"That would be fire," Lightning stated sarcastically. Sera rolled her eyes.

"I know that, I just meant that it shouldn't be happening."

Lightning walked up to the spewing crack. She stayed far enough away, but even from that distance, she could feel the extreme heat. Her forehead began to break out in a slight sweat. "Strange."

As silence strung itself out around them, a fierce rumbling shook the ruins, snapping Lightning out of her confused thoughts. She stepped away from the fire and backed toward Sera, going down the stairs carefully. Sera clung to a pillar, her left eye closed, but her right eye glued to the fire. "What's going on, Lightning?"

"Like I know," she yelled over the sudden loud, crumbling noise. She looked up and saw the rest of the roof fall down onto the ground. She stepped under an arch as a large chunk fell where she had stood. With one arm, she reached out and pulled Sera under with her, keeping a hand on her shoulder as the roof collapsed. Everything after that fell uncomfortably silent. The fire stopped, the roof stopped falling, and the eerie feeling just got worse.

Suddenly, the fire shot out of the ground again, only this time, floor chunks the size of the sand ship they had been in flew up with it, and in the middle of it all was a large creature. Lightning stood, awestruck, as the creature landed with incredible grace and ferocity that it was impossible. Sera took a step back, leaning against a piece of the roof. "Hey, Lightning, I don't think this is the place to be right now."

Lightning stared, but nodded. She kept her gaze on the creature as she felt her way through the mess that had surrounded them. She carefully backed up over debris, motioning for Sera to do the same. The creature was unaware of their presence there, and she wondered how smart it really was.

A loud THUNK sounded through the air and Lightning looked over. Sera was standing on a piece of debris, and half of it was rolling on the ground. She quickly looked at the creature and gasped as it ran at Sera. The girl screamed and Lightning burst into action. In one fluid movement, she switched her sword into her hand and leapt into the air, taking an extra umph from a piece of rubble. She soared through the air and her feet landed on the creatures back, the sword finding a new holster in it's neck.

It's skin was so hot that Lightning could feel the fire through her boots and she bit down a scream of pain. She pulled her sword out and quickly leapt off of it. The creature, after screeching from the new sword wound, spun around and looked at her. She got a good look at it's face now that it was looking straight at her. It had what looked to her like armor wrapped around it's entire face, it's small, beady yellow eyes staring at her with rage. It's teeth were sharp and pointed, bared at her.

It's thick, furry arms padded at the ground in a sudden movement, rushing at her. It jumped, already straight above her. Without much time to think about what she was doing, she rolled sideways, barely dodging the attack. It's claws dug into the ground where she had been standing less than two seconds ago. She heard a fast, whizzing , followed too closely by the creature's loud screech.

She looked to the side and saw Sera with her bow in hand. She had a satisfied smirk on her face. The creature wasn't all that phased, however. It was only more angry than before. It let out an animalistic roar and leapt onto the pillar closest to it. It jumped from pillar to pillar, hoping to avoid any moves made by its enemies.

"Lightning?" Sera asked. Lightning looked over and walked back to her, watching the creatures movements as she did. "What's going to happen now?"

In response, Lightning tightened her grip on the sword. "We fight. That's all we can do." she replied. Sera sighed and gripped her bow, pulling an arrow tight into place. She aimed it at the creature as Lightning transformed her blade into a gun, pointing it at their attacker. Both women prepared for pain, or even worse, saying their goodbyes to everything they knew, and Lightning, apologizing to Snow in her head. She wanted a clean conscience when they died.

As the creature stopped on a pillar and gathered its strength, it eyed them. Watched their every move, and just when Lightning thought that maybe they'd be able to walk away, it shot at them. Lightning grabbed Sera's arm and pulled her out of the way. As they hit the ground, she was momentarily stunned by the impact of the girl bouncing off of her and the crack that she heard in her head as it hit the stone, but she could've sworn she heard several gunshots and what sounded like a little Chocobo. Then again, if she did hit her head, there was a possibility of her hallucinating.

Her vision came in and out, but it eventually focused on the sky, and the face of Sera who stared at her in concern. "Hey, you okay?" she asked. Lightning shook the daze out of her head and sat up. Her hand cradled her head, but her eyes landed on the body of the creature. It was dead, or so she thought. Maybe it was another trick.

She looked at Sera with a confused look on her face. "Did you…?" she started to ask, but stopped when the girl simply shook her head.

"I don't know what happened," she admitted. "You pulled me out of the way, we collided, you collided with the ground, I collided with the wall. We were both too busy colliding with things to notice."

Lightning scowled. "Are you saying I shouldn't have pulled you out of the way?" she asked. Sera shook her head vigorously.

"No, not at all!" she exclaimed. "I am very thankful. That's not the first time you've pulled my butt outta danger. And it probably won't be the last. But no matter how many times you do, I will always be extremely grateful."

Lightning nodded, standing up. "Well, this was a lovely experience. Anything else I should know before we find the crystal?" she asked. Sera shrugged. She opened her mouth to answer, but was swiftly interrupted by a smooth, husky voice.

"The crystal's not here," the voice stated. "Just thought you'd like to know."